﻿WingBack﻿ ~ Jalston Fowler ~ Alabama Crimson Tide ~ 5110/255

Regarding WingBacks

"Tight End"is a term I apply only to the Players with a Frame built for the classic "In Line" Tight End ~ an Hybrid Player who serves as a combination Blocker and Receiver. Some Tight Ends, like Jimmy Graham, only line up on the Line of Scrimmage occasionally, and some do very little receiving, but they are, optimally, proficient at both.

The Prototype would be about 6050/260 or so.

The "Tight Ends" whose Frames are better suited to be deployed in running Routes from all over the Formation, and who aren't especially renowned for their Blocking ~ though many are adept Chippers ~ I refer to as Flex Ends.The Prototype would be about 6030/245 or so.Those of either type who present legitimate Dual Threats ~ who can make a genuine Impact either as a Blocker or as a Receiver ~ are impossible to predict from Snap to Snap, and this renders them extraordinarily dangerous.

Conceivably even more dangerous and dynamic than either of these two types is one of my pet Positions: The WingBacks. I employ this ancient FootBall Term, one still in active use in many High Schools and Colleges, to refer to a Role so ethereal as to be almost imaginary: an Hybrid FullBack & Flex End ~ a Super Hybrid, if you will.

The Prototype would be about 6000/250 or so.

The WingBack, optimally, would be a guy capable of Lead Blocking in the Run Game, Pass Blocking in the Passing Game, or splitting out and running Pass Patterns from SlotBack, Slot End, Split End, or Flanker. He could line up at any of those spots, or on either Wing, on the Line, or in the BackField. He could even go In Motion or run the Ball!!

Such a versatile, dynamic Player could have an explosive Impact on the Competitive LandScape.

The Game has reached a point in its Tactical History that is begging for such a Player.It awaits only for the NFL to realize the Opportunity.

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WingBacks could be deployed at FullBack, at WingBack, at SlotBack, at Slot End, or at HalfBack ~ the Ultimate Wild Card.

And they could quite conceivably render genuine Threats in all 3 Phases: Blocking, Catching, or Running.

Therefore, I'll break their Skill Sets down precisely along those lines:Lineman Attributes

Power: Above all: Core Power. Torso Power is important, but Core Power, from the Knees to the Ribs, is absolutely crucial. All the upper body Strength in the world will still fail if you simply can't dig in your heels. But Core Power enables an Offensive Lineman to project Power in the Running Game and to reject Power in the Passing Game.

Agility: Launch Velocity, Acceleration, and above all: Fluidity or Core Agility. Core Agility is even more essential to sustained good Health ~ and to sustained good FootBall ~ than Core Power. The ability to react with Serpentine smoothness is a tremendous asset in all Aspects of the Game, and certainly in the Hand to Hand Combat that characterizes Trench Warfare. All the Power in the World goes only so far if you're stiff and lumbering out there.

Intangibles:Processing Speed and Motor. Processing Speed or Diagnostic Velocity is about how quickly and effectively one Reads & Reacts to how the Rapidly Roiling Tactical LandScape effects Blocking Schemes, and Motor is about Endurance and Drive: How much Work has been put into Conditioning, and how it manifests itself.

Separation: Getting Open. This encompasses Combat Skills & Fluidity to beat Press, Acceleration out'f the Blocks, Fluidity and Ricochet in navigating Traffic, Route Running Precision, the capacity to deceive Defenders, and Field Vision for Timing Seems and Open Zones. All other Aspects of a WideOut's Job Description are dwarfed by this one.

* Power * Fluidity * Ricochet * Acceleration * Long Speed * Field VisionHalfBack AttributesPower: Above all: Core Power. Upper body Power is important, but lower body Power, from the Knees to the Ribs, is absolutely crucial. An HalfBack's Capacity to break Tackles is more about Core Power than anything else.

Agility: Launch Velocity, Fluidity, Acceleration, and Ricochet. Long Speed is all well and good, but at the end of the day, it is Gravy. What wins Championships is Moving The Chains. And Moving The Chains is accomplished far more consistently by the guys who exhibit the Agility ~ and the Focus ~ to consistently pick up 5 and sometimes 10 Yards at a time.

Processing Speed: Diagnostic Velocity. Field Vision. That ethereal Capacity to Rapidly Read & React to the Rapidly Roiling & Boiling Tactical LandScape...and to foresee and envision Lanes developing before they actually do.Broken down into SubCategories, it'd go something like this:

Power

* Core Power is most of it. Tyrannosaurus Rex would've made an Hell of an HalfBack. * Torso Power doesn't hurt, though.

Agility

* Launch Velocity * Fluidity * Acceleration * Ricochet * Long Speed

Processing Speed

* That ethereal Capacity to foresee and envision Lanes developing before they actually do.

Jalston Fowler Scouting Report

Blocking: Competitive. Impressive Power and Fluidity, exceptional Persistence and excellent Field Vision, but surprisingly Mediocre Mechanics, despite 5 Years in Nick Saban's Academy of Enlightened FootBall. There is Potential to become exceptional, though, for Fowler is a Savage and a smart kid. If his Mechanics develop, he could be awfully good.

Running: Exceptional. I'm grading his Running as a WingBack with a pronounced emphasis on Power Running, mind you, not as an HalfBack. And within that Context, Fowler exhibits impressive Power and Fluidity and excellent Field Vision.

Jalston Fowler Prospectus

It was surprising to find that a WingBack trained under Nick Saban for 5 Years is such an undeveloped Blocker. But Fowler has a pleasingly savage Attitude and he's a smart kid, so I believe that there's reason to hope that with Time & Training he'll refine his Mechanics, lengthen his Attention Span, and develop into a genuine Blocking Force.

Based on that Potential and the Chance of Attainment, and combined with his already impressively developed skills as both a Runner and as a Receiver, I believe that Jalston Fowler brings an intriguingly diversified Skill Set to the Field of Battle, one that, if wisely and advantageously employed and deployed, would go a considerable ways towards transforming his new Team's Offense into a deliciously and dangerously dynamic Hybrid Monster.

Whether or not that actually comes to pass is another matter, of course: The NFL inexplicably doesn't even employ the term WingBack, much less deploy WingBacks. Most likely, Fowler and his dynamic ilk will continue to be misdiagnosed as FullBacks, and see a Fraction of the Action they should see. But that's none of my Concern.

My Function, as always, is to share my view of the Value of a Prospect's Prospects based on how he ought to be employed and deployed ~ thus: his Services's real Value ~ not based on how I expect him to be utilized.Grateful Thanks, as always, for the crucial Work done by the folks at Draft BreakDown!!

Yank Rank: Soldier ~ Sleeper!!

﻿Market Value

5th/6th Round﻿

﻿Yankee Grade

3rd/4th Round﻿

Please do Note: This and all Evaluations issued by this Site are produced by a ludicrously unqualified Amateur, privy to not even the tiniest fraction of Coach's Tape, Scouting Expertise, Face to Face Interviewing, Experience, or Inside Information enjoyed by the Professionals. As such, anything put forth is certainly misinformed, euphonious, derivative Tripe, and should be rejected out'f hand and indeed shunned by all men and women of Good Will!! I'm trying to discern Power, Agility, Combat Skills, and far more abstract, esoteric Concepts such as Processing Speed and Motor, and I'm trying to do so based almost entirely on a fascinating fusion of Tape, Combine Numbers, and Pro Days, while trying to attenuate my findings based on Allowances for Competition Level, Scheme, Concept, Context, and, above all: Trajectory!!

This is not is even remotely a Complaint, mind you, but rather a Warning: Caveat Emptor!!